Perry may be facing impeachment

Democrats conduct research preliminary to impeach Texas governor By ALMA WALZER, The Monitor

A group of Democratic Texas state representatives is researching whether it can impeach Republican Gov. Rick Perry on corruption allegations, according to documents obtained by The Monitor.

At the top of the Democrats’ list of accusations of possible wrongdoing involving the governor is the contract between the Texas attorney general’s office and a Las Vegas law firm. The contract called on the firm to draft legislation on the issue of slot machines.

The $250,000 contract became public during a June 2 meeting of the Texas House Committee on Licensing and Administrative Procedures. The contract was finalized in 36 hours during a weekend in December 2003 at Perry’s urging and is being paid for by funds from the Texas Lottery Commission.

The lottery funds were intended for the state’s Foundation School Fund but were instead used to pay the law firm, documents obtained by The Monitor show.

The House Democrats studying impeachment, including Rep. Lon Burnam of Fort Worth and Rep. Pete Gallego of Alpine, said they also are disturbed by statements made by Perry about how the Texas Supreme Court will rule in a school finance lawsuit and the accusation of Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn that Perry misused a state agency to perform political opposition research on her.

Rumors continue to circulate around the state that Strayhorn is considering a run for governor against Perry in 2006.

Burnam told The Monitor that he is among a group of House members who seek to impeach Perry.

“It definitely looks like what the governor did with hiring the Las Vegas law firm, he used state funds to do that, and that was an illegal expenditure,” Burnam said. “That’s an impeachable offense. What he did was illegal, immoral and unethical.”

Burnam said he is focused on the allegedly illegal use of state funds for the law firm and looks forward to the July 14 follow-up meeting of the Committee on Licensing and Administrative Procedures.

“I certainly look forward to the facts coming forward,” Burnam said. “The (impeachment) research out there shows we are well within our rights and so we have to ask ourselves if we have an obligation to the people of Texas to do this.

“I think it’s a better use of state time to study the impeachment of the governor than to have him call another special session and get nothing done,” Burnam said.

Gallego acknowledged that he is part of the group studying impeachment.

“I like to be thoroughly prepared and try to play out all the angles,” Gallego said. “So I’m not prepared to talk about this in detail right now.

“But there is clearly a long series of really bad decisions, bad judgment, made on his (Perry’s) part,” Gallego said. “And that is certainly deserving of some discussion of whether that rises to the next level. Where I am right now is holding basic discussion on do we have a violation of the law and does it rise to impeachment? It’s too early to comment on anything else.”

At least one Republican state representative, who asked that his name not be used because of possible political ramifications, said he was studying the impeachment process along with House Democrats.

“I’m studying all the options,” he said.

More from the Houston Chronicle

Democratic legislators contacted on Thursday identified three main complaints that they believe need further investigation:

·The Texas Lottery Commission's hiring of a Las Vegas law firm to draft legislation to legalize video slot machines in Texas. The bill failed during the recent special session on school finance, and the law firm has so far billed the state for at least $176,743.

·Perry's remarks, in a private meeting in Dallas on May 13, that a lawsuit challenging the school finance law will fail because he knows where his appointees to the high court "stand" on the issue. The governor has denied discussing the case with Supreme Court justices, but detractors say it was improper for the governor to raise questions about the court's independence.

·An allegation by Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, also denied by Perry, that he had orchestrated a politically motivated audit of her office.

Gallego said that impeachment talk was prompted primarily by the Las Vegas law firm's hiring.